BotD: Nine shakes it up (and closes on EPL); Publish conference returns; Google asks for more
Welcome to Best of the Day, on the day Nine revealed a new plan for the management of its screen division and moved in on English soccer.
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The Day Today: Nine’s new screen structure; Optus deal imminent; Google pushes
Nine shakes up TV management
Nine this afternoon revealed a restructure of its TV operation under new MD of streaming and broadcast Amanda Laing.
TV boss Michael Healy will become executive director of entertainment across broadcast, free streaming service 9Now and subscription TV service Stan. Programming chief Hamish Turner will have P&L responsibility for Nine while Dan Taylor will be responsible for that of Stan. The company will hire a chief marketing officer and chief strategy officer across its streaming and broadcast operation. The company’s state MDs will all report into Laing too.
There was no word on the company’s plans for its publishing division.
Further analysis will follow in tomorrow’s Best of the Week
Nine closes on Optus Sport
Optus may yet get a deal away to sell its soccer-focused sports platform to Nine. Capital Brief predicted this afternoon that Stan will take over the Optus Sport rights to the English Premier League in the coming weeks. Previous reporting from inside the Nine tent had suggested the two sides were struggling to reach a deal.
Unmade called it in 2023:
What if Optus gets out of streaming?
What follows is not news. It’s a prediction.
There’s no insider tip of an imminent deal. But at the same time, here's a question: Will Optus soon look for some sort of exit from its sports streaming business?
Lions’ share
This year’s Cannes Lions advertising awards and conference pulled in revenues of more than $60m, Mumbrella calculated.
Publish conference returns
The Publish conference will return after a multi-year hiatus, we announced today. The event will take place at the State Library of NSW on October 28, a month after the Publish Awards. Anyone offering to join the Publish advisory panel or suggest a conference session is invited to contact the curator of Publish Cat McGinn via cat@unmade.media
Google adgrab to the Max
Google joined Meta in pushing for an even bigger slice of the advertising pie, with an Upfronts-style Google Marketing Live event promoting a series of black box products including Performance Max, which invite marketers to hand over their budgets to the AI-led product.
As has been Google’s practice with its recent local events, Unmade was not invited. Nonetheless, I plan to give some thought to the announcements in tomorrow’s Best of the Week.
SCA ends the trading week on a downer
Shares in Southern Cross Austereo slumped by 6.6% after a late Friday afternoon trade, leaving the company with a market capitalisation of $137m. It came after activist shareholder Sandon Capital raised its stake earlier in the week from 6.1% to 8.1% as it continues to push for a board spill.
Meanwhile rival audio company ARN Media saw its price grow by 1% to a $155m market cap.
Vinyl Group improved by 5% and small out of home company Motio improved again, rising by another 7.7% after its profit upgrade.
The Unmade Index closed down 0.79% the day on 556.4 points.
More from Mumbrella…
Time to leave you to your evening.
I’ll be back with Best of the Week in the morning.
And if you’d like a little more of me tonight, I’ll be on air on ABC Radio National shortly (in about 15 minutes from now in the eastern states). MediaLand kicks off at 5.30 - we’ll be discussing the implications of the Digital News report, audio Christmas and my verdict on 28 Years Later.
And if you don’t catch Vivienne Kelly and me when we go to air, you’ll soon find the show in the usual podcast places too.
Have a great night
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
Publisher - Unmade + Mumbrella
tim@unmade.media